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Plans for a shakeup of Formula One sparked by the economic
crisis and Honda's shock withdrawal overshadowed pre-season testing
in Spain this week, as drivers mourned the departure of one of the
sport's top teams.

"It's quite sad, it's bad for Formula One," Ferrari's Felipe
Massa said of the Japanese company's decision to quit the
sport.

"It's always nice to ... win against important teams like Honda,
like Toyota, like Mercedes, like BMW," the Brazilian, who finished
second in last season's drivers' championship behind Britain's
Lewis Hamilton, said on Thursday.

Double world champion Fernando Alonso said the pullout "was a
surprise for me and most of the people in the paddock because Honda
has been in Formula One for a long time and is one of the biggest
teams as well.

"I think it was not an easy decision for them to make and
hopefully no more teams will follow their decision," added the
Spaniard.

Honda announced last week it was pulling out of Formula One,
ending an involvement in the sport which dates back to the 1960s
and raising fresh fears over the future of the multi-million dollar
sport struggling to keep afloat in the current economic
downturn.

The decision sent shockwaves through Formula One, which had
already seen fellow Japanese team, Super Aguri go to the wall
earlier this year.

At a meeting in Monaco late on Wednesday, Formula One teams and
world motorsports governing body, the FIA, reached agreement to
radically reduce costs in response to the global economic crisis.
Details of the deal are to be announced on Friday.

FIA chief Max Mosley called for Formula One engineers to
innovate or else risk seeing the business decay.

"Success in Formula One today consists of optimising each little
bit of the chassis, which is ever more costly and completely
absurd," Mosley said in addressing the opening day of the Motor
Sport Business Forum in Monaco.

He also warned that more teams could follow Honda, whose annual
F1 budget was believed to be in the region of $US400 million
($A595.5 million).

"We have to face facts that Honda pulled out because of falling
car sales and there is absolutely no guarantee that the fall won't
go further.

"If they do, we have to reckon on other manufacturers pulling
out of not only F1, but other forms of motor sport, and we have to
plan for that."

At pre-season testing in Jerez de la Frontera, southern Spain,
drivers sought to focus on their performance on the track,
especially with the new slick tyres that will return to the sport
in 2009 after 10 seasons.

The slicks, as well as new aerodynamic alterations, are aimed at
making overtaking easier and thus more competitive -- and hopefully
exciting for spectators.